


Thistle and Thorn

by Lockea



Series: Thistle and Thorn [1]
Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gen, Kharlan War, Slavery, Sort Of, Tales of the Kharlan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 17:10:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12611376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lockea/pseuds/Lockea
Summary: It wasn’t concern or compassion that drove Yuan to sneak a knife into the pocket of his young master’s robes two nights after the omega’s disastrous wedding night. It wasn’t love, that was for sure. It was something else, self-preservation perhaps, because Yuan knew that as soon as his master’s mate tired of him, the alpha would turn to Yuan instead. And Yuan, selfishly, didn’t want that destiny. What he never anticipated were the consequences of his actions. Now on the run together, Yuan and Kratos are forced to rely on each other to survive, but no matter where they go they can’t escape their destiny – a runaway slave and a mated omega – at least, not until a new destiny crashes literally on top of them in the form of a half-elf girl and her younger brother. The four of them just wanted to survive; destiny had other plans.





	Thistle and Thorn

**Author's Note:**

> AKA the only ABO fanfiction in the Tales of Symphonia fandom. AKA welcome to my other NaNo project, this monstrosity. 
> 
> Hi, my name is Lockea and when I'm bored I write Id fic.
> 
> I'm also trash for the Yuan-was-Kratos's-slave trope even though there's a Tales of Radiance game where that's debunked (canonically, they were enemies serving on different sides of the war). The fun part of writing this is having an excuse to go through the TVtropes page and the wiki for ToS because I do NOT remember anything from this game. Man.

Yuan’s mother called them the crying girls. Every few months, in the spring and the fall, the soldiers heading for the front lines of the war or on their way home for the winter would avail themselves of Lord Aurion’s hospitality. The barracks that sat low along the edge of the estate, cursedly close to where the long cabins that housed the slaves were located, would fill with alphas either excited for their first taste of blood or wound up on that same bloodlust so recently sated. Lord Aurion did not care so much what the alphas did so long as they did not maim, disable, or kill the girls. Yuan’s mother was a crying girl. It didn’t take much to figure it out. She’d been beautiful in her youth – more elf than human – and she’d never had a lover among the slaves. Yet, nonetheless, she bore three children. Yuan, and his two brothers.

“At least you will never be a crying girl. Thank the spirits for that.” She said to Yuan once, on a cold evening after the soldiers had left. It was the closest she ever came to an admission of what she had been when she was Yuan’s age. Yuan had nodded but even then, at the age of fifteen, he’d known what a hollow mercy being born a male half-elf was. He was still a slave, after all, and that meant he was still subject to his masters’ whims.

Humans were strange creatures, and while common born alphas may have had no problem sowing their seed in every omega or female slave they could get their hands on, Yuan did not grow up in the fields surrounding a great lord’s estate without knowing a thing or two about the nobility. The house slaves spoke of it sometimes, especially when Yuan ran delivers up to the estate’s kitchens. Lord Aurion himself kept a male body slave specifically to slake his lust in ways he could not, or would not, with his own wife. The slave was lovely, they said, fine boned as any omega with long blond hair and wide blue eyes. As lovely as a female, as accommodating as any omega, and completely unable to bear any bastard children.

So Yuan had known from an early age that if he grew up to be half as pretty as his mother, he risked becoming his own version of a crying girl. He did what he could to hide it – chopping his blue hair unevenly around his chin, covering his face with dirt and mud (an easy feat when one worked the fields) and hiding away in the back of crowds so that people would not notice that, as he exited puberty, Yuan had grown up to be as exquisitely beautiful as his mother.

The night before everything changed the first time, the night before Lord Aurion was to make his yearly inspections of his land, Yuan and his mother sat beside the fire in their long cabin, Yuan’s younger brothers snoring softly in their pallets. She washed his face and said to him, “You can’t outrun destiny, Yuan. The best you can do is face it head on and brace yourself.”

“This is not a destiny.” Yuan replied. “This is not  _my_  destiny.”

Her smile in response had been so sad that Yuan did not snap at her when she ignored his words and, instead, told him how to bear the pain of being raped, told him how to use mana to relax his body, and pressed a vial of oil and a precious apple gel into his hands and told him that she loved him.

Yuan did not sleep that night.

The next morning the slaves lined the long road between the estate and the fields as Lord Aurion began his inspection. This time was different however. This time Lord Aurion brought his omega child with him. The child – a teenager, really, maybe a year or two younger than Yuan – was just as lovely as every rumor claimed he was. Auburn hair fell in a long plate over the omega’s shoulder, warm brown eyes framed by thick lashes set in a face still losing the rest of its baby-fat. No one in the fields had seen the child before, though all knew he existed. It was part of Sylvarant’s human culture to keep an omega secluded from the world until they were betrothed. The few times the public had caught glimpse of the young omega, he’d been hidden behind heavy veils and been nothing more than a flitting presence. Now, he rode alongside his father for the first time, marking a recent engagement.

This year was different from previous years as well, as rather than a cursory glance across his property, Lord Aurion took the time to speak with his taskmasters in depth. Several slaves were even brought forward and it was around the third time that this happened that Yuan was filled with dread. The slaves brought forward were male and if not pretty than at least handsome. Each one was taken aside as the lord rode down the line.

Beside him, Yuan’s mother gripped his hand so hard her knuckles turned white. Lord Aurion spoke to the taskmasters in charge of Yuan’s unit and, sure enough, one came to retrieve him, ordering him to follow as, numbly, Yuan obeyed.

He kept his head down both because it was not his place to meet the Lord’s eyes, and because he hoped to stay unnoticed as he approached. It was from beneath lowered lashes that Yuan observed the scene before him. The omega was watching him with brown eyes, clearly bored already of the outing. Yuan was pushed up until he stood by Lord Aurion’s boot. “Age?” Lord Aurion asked, as bored as his child, as he reached down to grip Yuan’s chin, raising his face so he could study it. Yuan stared past his ear, unable to move away as much as he wanted to run and hide in his mother’s skirts like he hadn’t since before his youngest brother was born.

“Eighteen.” The taskmaster who’d escorted him replied.

“Hmm. He’ll do. Send him with the others.”

Yuan had just enough time to glance back, trying to find his family in the line of slaves three deep that stood along the road. He couldn’t see any of them. He couldn’t tell them goodbye.

(In four thousand years, that’s one of his biggest regrets. Not Martel’s death or the abysmal way he’d failed Mithos. No, it was that he never saw his family ever again. Never learned what became of his brothers and mother, not even after the war. Not even after everything was over. What he didn’t regret was the way he’d glanced, just so suddenly and only for a split second, at Lord Aurion’s omega child seated astride the horse. That one glance that cause Kratos to take notice of him – that one glance that changed both their destinies.)

In the end, Lord Aurion selected ten slaves from the crowd, including Yuan. They were taken back up to the main estate and left to wait, unattended, in the courtyard for several hours until the sun was low in the sky again and Yuan’s stomach was twisting in hunger. It was nearly sunset when Lord Aurion rode into the courtyard and dismounted before turning to help his child from the horse in a way that spoke to the affection between them. Not enough, Yuan would learn, but clearly Lord Aurion believed he loved his child enough to dote on him in public and in private.

“Kratos,” Lord Aurion spoke to his child, and for the first time Yuan had a name to the person, though it hardly mattered. “This is to be part of your dowry; choose whoever you wish.”

 _Not me._  Yuan believed in the Guardian Spirits, and he prayed to Aska and Luna, the lovers, to spare him whatever fate was planned. Whatever destiny was to come. But the lovers did not listen.

The omega moved with a controlled sort of grace, every moment preplanned and carefully poised. He crossed the courtyard to stand in front of Yuan – six inches shorter, a small person (only sixteen, Yuan knew) – and cocked his head to the side. “The blue haired one.”

Lord Aurion smiled, wide and warm towards the child. “An excellent choice.”

Yuan had no time to protest, nor a voice with which to do so. He was stuck and had no ability to protest as he was escorted away from the other slaves and into the manor where the house slaves took him to the bathing rooms. They looked at him pityingly, every sideways glance filling him with dread as he considered what the looks might possibly mean. In the bathing chambers he was told to strip, his body scrubbed down with quick efficiency until his pink skin felt raw and sore. His blue hair was neatly trimmed, the ragged edges evened out until it fell feathered around his face. He was given clean clothes of higher quality than his rags from the field, the uniform of the house. 

When he was clean and dry and dressed, two of the slaves escorted him through the manor, still silent as they led him through the servants passages to a room denoted by a plain wooden door. A knock, a brief call from within, and the door was opened, Yuan gently pushed through, and the door closed behind him.

With a shudder, Yuan realized he was alone in the lion's den. The room he was in was ornate and clearly a noble's bedroom, lavish and comfortable and opulent. It was also, at first glance, empty.

"I'm over here." Came the voice that had called for entrance a few moments earlier. Yuan glanced in that direction, towards a desk hidden in a corner beside a window. Seated at it was Lord Aurion's omega child. He glanced up with a smile on his face, expression otherwise unreadable, as Yuan approached him, head bowed. "You're much prettier when you're cleaned up."

Yuan knew the response he was supposed to give. A thanks for the compliment, but he refused, keeping his silence instead.

"Do you know why you're here?" The omega asked.

"As part of your dowry, sir." Yuan replied.

"I suppose. But why you specifically?"

:"Sir?" Yuan asked, confused.

"I could have chosen any of the others as part of my dowry. There were certainly beautiful males among those my father chose. It's customary, you know. Alphas have desires that would break a fragile omega, desires that only another alpha could possibly survive, or a male slave perhaps, although I'm sure my father's slave would disagree." The omega turned away from Yuan then, staring out the window. "My husband is to be Lord Parsian, my father's border ally. He's nearly three times my age and has been married twice before. Both his previous omegas passed away in childbirth. My father thinks that will not happen to me because I am strong, not fragile, but he's deluded himself. The slaves think I am insentient as my heat nears or ends, so their lips loosen and they gossip when they come in to care for me during the heat. They speak about bruises found on the bodies of Parsian's wives, of the sickness of Parsian's one child, an omega as well, and how she is a shy, retiring omega who is often bedridden with mysterious illnesses."

Yuan wondered why the omega was telling him all this, at least until the omega glanced back at him. "I hope you'll forgive me, but like my father I looked at you and believed you would survive too. I can't escape my destiny, but I had hoped not to go it alone."

It's a surprisingly quiet admission, a vulnerable one that Yuan had not expected from the omega. It feels surprisingly informal, for all that the omega speaks eloquently. Yuan says nothing however, but he feels the selfishness of the request and squashes down his instinctive reaction to rage against the omega who has dragged him into this situation now. This clearly abusive lord whom the omega is to marry. This volatile situation which will undoubtedly effect Yuan as well. 

The omega sighs, deep and heavy, before rising to his feet, the long robes of his station trailing after him as he crosses the room and stands in front of Yuan. Shorter than Yuan, but of average height for a human omega. Yuan doesn't react as the omega reaches up one hand and tilts Yuan's chin back, so close yet Yuan is paralized to move, to do what he wishes and push the omega away.

"Kratos." The omega says.

"What?" The words are out of Yuan's mouth before he can retract them, so he belatedly adds, "Sir?"

"My name. I am Kratos Aurion. And your name?"

"Yuan." No last name, because slaves did not have last names. Except, that Yuan did. Half elves always kept their names secret, whispered in the darkness like a precious treasure the thieves -- the humans -- would come to steal. Ka-Fai.

Kratos smiled then, but it was more of smirk, really. He moved away from Yuan, towards the bed, and began the task of disrobing. Yuan glanced towards the bed, and saw on it the manacles. He froze.

Kratos glanced back at him and saw where Yuan's gaze had gone. "Ah." He spoke simply. "My heat is due to begin tonight or early tomorrow morning. The manacles are to keep me from hurting myself during it." He slipped out of the first layer and laid the long garment across the bed. "I'm to marry Lord Parsian as soon as this heat subsides. A short engagement, because my father and Parsian both fear that Parsian's omega child will be starved for the love of a mother." A silence, then another sigh. "You're dismissed, Yuan. You should take the next few days to acclimate yourself and perhaps attend me during my heat. We both have a long road ahead of us."

Yuan left by the same door he entered, thoughts of the strange omega -- Kratos Aurion -- spinning in his head. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments feed the writing beast within me. If you enjoyed, consider at the very least clicking the little button below that feeds me daily emails of people who read and liked my story. If you are so inclined, also don't hesitate to talk to me. I'm a sucker for comments, tumblr chats, random asks, and headcanons. Feel free to hit me up. I don't bite. Most of the time.


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